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Biggles - Air Commodore/plot
Chapter 1: An Unusual "Whether" Report Biggle meets two ex-R.F.C. comrades, Tom Lowery and Jerry Laidshaw. From their conversation over lunch, Biggles notes an uncanny coincidence. Lowery had picked up a distress signal from a ship where the word "weather" had been misspelt "whether". Lairdshaw, at the Air Minister, had read a report about another ship sinking in the same area. It's final radio message had also misspelt "weather" as "whether". To Biggles, it implies strongly that the messages must have been sent by the same man, prossibly an unknown hostile attacker which gained control of the radio and sent a false mesage before sinking each ship. Biggles' concern grows when he learns that a third ship which sank had the same spelling error in its distress call and that all the ships carried munitions. He shares his hunch with Colonel Raymond who hurries to notify higher authorities. Chapter 2: An Important Conference Biggles is invited by a senior government minister, Lord Lottison to formulate a plan and then lead the operation to seek and destroy whatever menace appear to be sinking the ships. From the positions of the ships which had been sunk, Biggles surmises that the enemy air or naval force responsible must be operating from a secret base in the Mergui Archipelago. His plan calls for a merchant ship loaded with munitions as a bait/decoy, an marine aircraft to track it and a destroyer in reserve and as a supply vessel for the aircraft. Biggles also asks for the senior air force rank of Air Commodore. This is the only way he can exercise command over the destroyer and also be assured of being able to call on naval and air force reinforcements as needed. The request is highly unusual but Lottison promises to swing it. Chapter 3: In the Nick of Time Biggles' scheme is approved and the decoy ship Bengal Star departs Calcutta followed by the destroyer H.M.S. Seafret. Biggles, Algy and Ginger shadows them in a Storm amphibian, the Nemesis. Off the Mergui Archipelago, in the early hours of the morning, both Seafret and Nemesis suddenlt lose contact with the Bengal Star. The Nemesis rushes to the last known position and they save one survivor from the wreckage, a seaman named Ladgrove. Before he dies from his wounds, Ladgrove says his ship was struck by torpedoes and its radio had been jammed. An unknown submarine then surfaced and machine gunned the survivors in the boats before sailing away southeast. Chapter 4: "Reported Missing" Biggles decides to fly down to Singapore. There he makes arrangements for an R.A.F. air strike should he need more firepower to destroy the submarine base. He also learns that Tom Lowery had been posted missing. While flying a new Gannet flying boat to Singapore from England, he had departed Rangoon a week ago and had not been heard from since. Chapter 5: A Desperate Combat Five days later, Biggles and co. come across the wreckage of an R.A.F. flying boat on a small island in the Mergui. Tom and his mechanic are both dead. The mechanic had a gunshot wound showing that he had been shot from above. So the enemy also used aircraft! Biggles sends Algy and Ginger aloft to signal the Seafret. Down on the ground he watches with consternation as the Storm amphibian is bounced by an unknown red seaplane. Algy evades a few attacks but then his engines stop. Both aircraft descend low and disappear from Biggles' view. He hears machine gun fire and a crash. Is it the end? Chapter 6: Jungle Bound In reality, it was the the red seaplane which had crashed. Ginger had shot it down with a mobile machine gun. But the Storm amphibian's engines had cut out. Algy manages to force land in a mangrove swamp. Leaving Ginger to repair the aircraft, Algy goes ashore to search for Biggles. Chapter 7: A Terrible Night Algy becomes stranded up a mangrove by the rising tide and, inevitably, he has to deal with a crocodile. But at least his gunshots attract Biggles' attention. Biggles had taken the dinghy from Tom Lowery's crashed plane to search for Algy and Ginger. He picks Algy up and they return to the Nemesis. Chapter 8: Shadows on the Shore The repairs are completed and the Nemesis takes off and finds the Seafret. Two shore parties are sent out: Algy with some men to bury Tom Lowery and his mechanic, and Biggles with some others to search for and examine the wreck of the seaplane Ginger shot down. Ginger is left to guard the Nemesis. The weather turns bad and he is given a seaman Giles to bring the aircraft up to the beach and tie it down. After a while Ginger notices Giles is unusually quiet and looks asleep under the wing. He takes a look and discovers that Giles has been killed by a blowpipe dart. Ginger fires at shadows he sees in the bushes and is soon joined by the others but the attackers disappear into the jungle. Chapter 9: A Nasty Customer Biggles, Sullivan and the rest hold a council of war on board the Seafret. Sullivan mentions that he saw a junk with a red mainsail and yellow jib. Biggles had seen it too. They are discussing the idea of investigating the junk when Biggles suddenly makes a grab through the porthole. Someone has been eavesdropping! Biggles hangs on to the intruder by the hair through the porthole while Sullivan and the others rush outside to capture him. The prisoner is brought in and made to talk. He is a crew member of the junk. He doesn't know much about who his boss is but he gives the position of the junk. Biggles leads a boarding party out to the junk by boat and they capture it. In the hold they find torpedoes, artillery shells and small arms ammunition. From the captain's cabin, they find papers, mostly in an Oriental language. But there is a map with many lines drawn, all converging on Elephant Island! Chapter 10: A Risky Plan Biggles decides he needs to confirm the presence of the enemy on Elephant Island before a main attack is launched and this can only be done by ground reconnaissance. He draws up a risky plan. The Seafret would drop him and Ginger off the southeast end of the island. They would paddle to an islet by dinghy. Ginger would wait there with the boat while Biggles scouts the objective. Algy would remain with the aircraft as a mobile reserve in case they get into trouble. Chapter 11: Horrors From the Deep They proceed as planned and Ginger drops Biggles off at Elephant Island before going to a nearby islet to hide out. Later into the night, he sees a giant decapod attach itself to his boat and then drag it out into the water. The decapod and another then comes ashore and start pursuing him. Ginger flees in terror and runs into the shallow water and crosses over to Elephant Island. He approaches the beach where he landed Biggles and then notices a number of strange structures. They looked like trees but appeared to have sticks and twigs spread across their lower branches, creating large basket like rectangular nests. But his attention is drawn next to a throbbing sound. Looking over a nearby cliff, he sees a submarine appearing, as it were, from out of the rock face and sailing away. Chapter 12: Elephant Island Biggles explores Elephant Island and finds nothing of interest. He sits down against a tree to take stock. Suddenly just as he leans away, a kris strikes the tree trunk! A party of native Dyak tribesmen are approaching! Biggles doesn't stop to see who threw the weapon at him. He makes a dash in the direction of his rendezvous with Ginger but trips and falls. Chapter 13: A Gruesome Refuge Ginger hears the approaching tribemen and decides to take refuge up a tree on one of the rectangular basket like structures. He reaches his perch in time to see Biggles trip and fall. Then he discovers what his nest really is: a burial structure and he is sharing it with a long dead corpse. Ginger lets out a wild shriek and jumps off. His yelling and sudden appearance is more than the pursuing Dyaks can take and they flee in terror. Ginger follows Biggles in desparate run to the beach. Chapter 14: Where is the Seafret? By a stroke of good luck, the rising tide brings their lost boat to the shore and they retrieve it. Ginger tells Biggles about the submarine heard but when they examine the cliff face, they can find no opening. Biggles is sceptical about the what Ginger heard, but, towards evening, they hear an seaplane land after a flight. It disappears behind a headland, shuts down its engine and then disappears. Biggles and Ginger head out for the cliff face again and this time the mystery is explained. There is an opening in the rock wall which is exposed only at low tide. It must be some kind of tunnel through which the aircraft and submarines travel to reach some base set within the island. The Seafret does not arrive at the appointed time. Instead they meet Algy who has taxied the Storm amphibian over. Algy tells them the Seafret had been torpedoed by an unknown submarine but Sullivan had managed to beach the ship and there had been no casualties. Biggles decides they must explore a little more and head back for the cliff face with Ginger in the boat. He asks Algy to stay with the aircraft. Chapter 15: Trapped! Going through the opening, Biggles and Ginger travel through a tunnel and emerge into a lake set inside the crater of an extinct volcano. On the shore are some buildings and a moored submarine and seaplane. A branch of the tunnel leads to a large cavern which was an ammunition dump with torpedoes, shells and mines. Biggles decides to lay one of the mines in the tunnel to block it and ensure that the base and personnel are eliminated when the R.A.F. attack is called in. Chapter 16: In the Lion's Den But just as they release the mine, they hear a throbbing sound. A submarine is entering the tunnel! They row feverishly to get away from the impending explosion but do not quite make it. The submarine strikes the mine and the resultant waves smashes their boat against the moored seaplane. Biggles and Ginger are soon spotted by the enemy personnel in the crater. There is only one way out--a path leading to a radio hut on the rim of the mountain. They evict the occupants of the building and Ginger starts radioing a message to Singapore for an air strike. There is a puzzling reply from the ''Seafret telling them to "stand by for...." and then the radio goes dead. Biggles must buy time for the air strike so he grabs a machine gun conveniently mounted outside the hut and holds the base personnel at bay. But the ammunition is soon exhausted so Biggles and Ginger make a break for the rim and get out of the crater. Chapter 17: Just Retribution Some Dyaks pursue Biggles and Ginger but they suddenly scatter. Looking up, Biggles sees Vildebeest bombers start their bombing run on the base in the crater. How did they get here so fast? But there is no time to ponder: a greenish grey cloud rises from the crater. Gas! Biggles and Ginger hastily join Algy in the amphibian and they take off to rejoin Sullivan at Hastings Island. Sullivan now explains. He had summoned the Vildebeests for support when Algy did not come back from his sortie to retrieve Biggles and Ginger. They had just arrived at Hastings when Ginger's radio call came and so took off immediately to attack. Their bombs were regular high explosive. But Sullivan had found gas shells in the cargo of the junk that had been captured. The gas cloud over the island probably came from the gas shells the enemy had stored in the crater. It was, as Biggles observed, a just retribution. In Passing Back in London, Ginger is eager to hear what Lord Lottison had said to Biggles when he delivered his report. Lottison had said, "Thank you very much." What did Ginger expect? Category:Plot summaries